Public responds with a yawn

A drunken police officer seems to upset people more than a drunken firefighter.

A drunken police officer seems to upset people more than a drunken firefighter.

March 27, 2006|NANCY J. SULOK

Where's the outrage? It was revealed last week that three South Bend firefighters are in trouble for alleged drunken driving offenses. The South Bend Board of Public Safety also is reviewing the case of a firefighter who got in trouble in December 2004 for buying a drug with a false prescription. And in December 2005, an engineer with the Fire Department was suspended for 30 days for hacking into other firefighters' computers to send a doctored photo of the fire chief. Meanwhile, a Mishawaka firefighter recently was arrested for allowing a 20-year-old man to have sex with a 15-year-old girl in his home. So where's the outrage? When a police officer gets into trouble, my telephone rings constantly and I'm flooded with e-mails. But I haven't received a single complaint about the wayward firefighters. Neither have our police beat reporters. Nobody has written a letter to the editor so far about it. Fire Chief Luther Taylor said Friday he was surprised that he also had not received a single contact from the public. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Both police officers and firefighters are pledged to protect the public safety. Both hold positions of public trust. Why does a drunken police officer seem to upset the public more than a drunken firefighter? Is there a double standard? "I hope the public doesn't have a different set of standards for us," Taylor said. "We're both out there serving the public.'' Kenneth Marks, president of the South Bend firefighters union, could not be reached for comment. His counterpart on the South Bend Police Department is Sgt. Steve Noonan, president of Lodge 36 of the Fraternal Order of Police. He noted, like Taylor, that both police officers and firefighters take oaths to serve the public. Both of them drive emergency vehicles and respond to emergency situations, sometimes life-threatening situations. Police officers and firefighters often work side-by-side at the scene of an emergency. They both see people at their worst, Noonan said. Nevertheless, he said, the public has different perceptions of police officers and firefighters. A firefighter is regarded as someone who has arrived to help. "When we go out,'' Taylor said, "the majority of times we are going out to save someone. People do see it different, and it is different." A police officer often is seen as threatening. Sometimes when police officers respond they end up arresting a suspect, taking away a person's freedom, Noonan explained. A police officer is pledged to uphold the law, he said, and when an officer violates the law it is seen as a double standard. That might be why the response is different between an arrested police officer and an arrested firefighter. One is met with public anger, while the other is greeted by a collective yawn. But Taylor and Noonan both said firefighters should be held to the same higher standard, because they are handling specialized, complicated equipment and have to make life-saving decisions. The three firefighters recently arrested for alleged drunken driving all were off duty at the time. Taylor said at least two of them, and possibly all three, have taken steps on their own to seek help through Madison Center, which oversees the city's employee assistance program. None of the arrested firefighters was driving a city vehicle when arrested. Two of the three arrested police officers were in private vehicles. Taylor said none of the three firefighters drive firetrucks as part of their regular duties, but all firefighters must have valid driver's licenses, and any of them could be used as back-up drivers on the trucks. Noonan said the three arrested policemen are good officers who were caught in bad circumstances. The FOP doesn't condone drunken driving, he said, and it has participated in efforts to make officers aware of the risks of drinking and driving. The FOP has been supportive of the three officers, he said, and has supported the steps taken by Police Chief Thomas Fautz to address the issue. Among other things, the chief has brought in experts from the employee assistance program to work with the rank-and-file and the supervisors to make them aware of the signs of trouble. "I don't want to see it happen again,'' Noonan said, "but I hope it's a learning experience.'' Nancy J. Sulok's columns appear on Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays. You can reach her at nsulok@sbtinfo.com, or by writing c/o South Bend Tribune, 225 W. Colfax Ave., South Bend, IN 46626, telephone (574) 235-6234.